As with all technology, that which makes it most exciting, is often times an application outside that which was originally expected. For example in this rendering, by paleoartist Victor Deak. Deak uses various 3d modeling programs to bring the skulls anthropologists see to life. some of his most recent work may be found in the "Becoming Human" documentary - recently aired on PBS.
As Deak put it, "they look realer to me... for a couple seconds, people might say, 'What's that a photo of? Where'd you get that picture? There's that moment of belief when they're not looking at it as a painting or sculpture, but as a living thing."
Deak was able to combine his passion for visualization and animation into his working environment as a paleontologist. In doing so he has created a career for himself that continues to make very important contributions - yet now these contributions are heard not only throughout academia, but also seen by every day people. Deak's work is important, for the imaging techniques he currently uses will probably hold a founding basis for craniofacial reconstruction renderings. In improving such accuracies in computer-aided imaging we may get that much closer to truly "seeing" the past.
Such technologies could prove insurmountably helpful, not just in anthropology, but in all reconstructive means - such as in identification purposes, biometrics, historical databasing, etc.
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